Australian F1: Gourmet burgers

Dear Julia

Last year the Australian F1 was done by My eldest sister and her boyfriend.

It was very exciting actually, because they had just recently bought a house together, so it was one of the first events which they had catered at their beautiful new home.

As you may know, the Australian F1 is aired in the morning in South Africa, so what they decided to do was to have breakfast/brunch gourmet burgers.

The patties were made from scratch, using the ostrich and beef mixed mince which you can often buy at the shops here, but for the purpose of the day, we had fun pretending it was actually emu and kangaroo mince. :)

As it was not my F1 that I catered, so I cannot give you the exact recipe for the mince, BUT what I can do for you is be nice and tell you what most of the ingredients were that went into the mince, and approximates. :)

Therefore, your "plus/minus" recipe for the burger patties are as follows:

Ingredients:

+- 1 kg of beef and ostrich mince mix

+- 2 slices worth of bread crumbs

+- 1-2 eggs

+- 1 hand full of fresh parsley

a decent sprinkle of mixed herbs

about a table spoon of tomato paste

about 3 table spoons of worcestershire sauce (the most NB ingredient when making patties or meatballs in my opinion)

+- 2 teaspoons of crushed garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together to the consistency of play-dough.

Extra Notes:

Some of the yummy sides which we added to the serving table for people to create gourmet happiness included, beetroot, rocket, bacon, eggs, tomato, roasted red pepper and tomato pesto, onion marmalade, camembert cheese, mature cheddar cheese, guacamole, etc, etc, etc!

Mmmm... Look how yummy it looks!

Yours Truly

May Marjoram

Baking for Caking

Dear Julia and Frida

On the 20th of May it was Farah Fennel's birthday. It was a most interesting day, because she decided that what she wanted to do for her birthday was bake. This turned out to be most fitting, because our mother just happened to find out that the 20th of May 2012 was actually world baking day! Who knew!

After further web searching about this elusive world baking day, we stumbled across quite a fun element to the day, which was called caking!

Basically what you were meant to be doing on the 20th of May this year was to bake something, and then place it in a strange or different location, take a picture of it, and then post it on social networks as "#caking".

This turned out to me quite a lot of fun.

Farah made some DELICIOUS chocolate beetroot cupcakes and then I had a lot of fun walking around putting them in random places and taking photos.

I'm not sure if the world baking day was a once off thing or not, but if not, and if it does happen again next year, I HIGHLY recommend participating. It really is fun to use those creative juices trying to find somewhere interesting to take a picture of your baked goodie(s).


It really was a lot of fun trying to see where it would look strange and interesting to put the cup cakes that Farah had made, and how lucky I was that the new house she and her Boyfriend had bought is so full of possibilities for some very fun photos.

Their house is very nice, with a bit of old meets new going on, it's a super cozy house, and it has a lovely big garden full of funny statues which the previous owner left behind... now THEY came in handy :D hehehehe.

So here are the #caking pictures taken that day... I hope you'll appreciate the fact that I'm even in one of them :D.

Looks like I have a little cup cake hat on my head... (personally I think it actually suits me:)

Sincerely

May Marjoram

May Marjoram - Cake on head

#Cake on Decorative Jar

#David likes cake

#Stig and storm trooper caking

#Cakes like to swing

#Cake on a tap

Banana fritters

Dear Julia.

Here is a special recipe from our F1 cuisine club!

I think this one actually deserves some special mention because, this little recipe has been such a hit with the F1 cuisine club that we have repeated it for a couple of years now already. IN FACT I think it has been repeated three times!

If you love banana then these are probably for you! We've been known to eat them on their own, or with ice cream! nom nom!

Just think of it, banana, gooey, crispy goodness! YUM! Banana fritters = LOVE!

Ingredients (Serves 6-8):

4 large ripe bananas mashed
6-8 Tablespoons of flour
2 Tablespoons rice or cornflour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
Vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

Easy-peasy-squeezy! Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Add about a tablespoon at a time to a medium heat pan with the vegetable oil in it and fry until golden brown! Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Sincerely

May Marjoram

Dim sum

Dear Julia


I don't know about you, but for most of my life when I would say I feel like Chinese food, that actually meant I felt like either sweet and sour chicken or pork, or chicken chop suey, with chow mein (noodles), and some spring rolls and a fortune cookie.

We get so stuck into these habits where we try one thing, like it, and then that is all we eat from that take away or restaurant for the rest of time.

Last year though, I was fortunate enough to be invited by to go up for a trip to Joburg (Johannesburg) by my Fiancee's parents.

There they have a flat which they stay in, because they often have to travel there for business, and literally a block away from that flat is a lovely Chinese restaurant.

They had been there before, and met with the manager, and on her recommendation they had tried some different things there at the restaurant and had really enjoyed it, so on our trip, they insisted on taking us there to try the food.

Again what they did was ask the manager if she could please recommend some things that we should try.

This woman was amazing! She asked us some questions about what types of flavours we usually like, what our feelings are about different meats, how we feel about hot spicy foods, etc. From our answers, she came up with the recommendation that we eat family style, and that she would bring us some options to all try together based on our answers.

The meal that night then came into being as  the most amazing Chinese meal I had ever experienced. This is the night I had my first pot sticker! It was a beautiful pan fried pork dumpling. The wonton wrapper encasing the pork was soft and silky, but with a slight crunch where it had come into contact with the pan, and the pork inside was amazingly juicy and tasty!

The pot stickers were dipped into a garlic soya sauce which paired so well with the pork! I was in love! Other dishes we had that night included peppery beef stir fry, pecking duck with pancakes and plum sauce, sweet and sour fish, and chocolate and banana spring rolls with red bean paste!!

My favourite meal of the night though HAD to be the little pan fried pork dumplings, and it has become my mission to find the beauties at the same quality somewhere here in Cape Town.

The closest I have found so far were at Jade Court.

Pot stickers (pan fried dumplings) and Wontons

My Fiancee and I had a lovely meal at Jade Court (Tygervalley Waterfront) where he went for the cholesterol friendly option of a sushi platter, and I went about trying to recreate some of my lovely experiences of the Chinese place in Joburg.

I had myself some pan fried pork dumplings, and decided to try out the deep fried prawn wontons as well.

The deep fried wontons I can assure you are worth it! lovely mouthfuls with sweet prawn inside and crispy! The pan fried pork dumplings and their garlic soy dipping sauce compared with the Joburg restaurant in flavour very well. The pork inside was moist and juicy and had the same lovely saltiness as the Joburg ones, so on the flavour front, spot on.

However I am still in search of a pot sticker to match the texture I experienced in Joburg. I found in comparison the dumpling was a little chewier not the silkiness of the wonton wrapper I had experienced in Joburg, but I can definitely say that I'd go back and have them again, and again and again!

Sincerely

May Marjoram

Slaying a DRAGON fruit

Dear Amelia and Julia

So perhaps the title of this post is a little bit dramatic, however the name of the fruit is rather dramatic don't you think and it looks dramatic, so doesn't this lovely fascinating fruit deserve a little drama, a little adventure, a little pzazz?

Here in South Africa we have really managed to grow in the culinary world, and I suppose that is why suddenly we are importing some lovely global morsels into not just specialty stores but into some of our local super markets as well.

In today's South Africa, you can find funky enoki and oyster mushrooms, bok choi, endives, truffle, and even  okra. Previously if recipes called for the fore mentioned, you had to substitute them with button mushrooms and lettuce, and pray the recipe worked without the truffle and even more, you sat there going "what on earth is okra?".

For me it has been wonderful, because it sometimes feels that as my foodie-ness grew, so has the food market, making it easier for me to experiment and try out some of the lovely things I have seen on the cooking channel.

With the above in mind, you can therefore image my excitement when I was just walking around our local grocery store with my Mother one day with just the intention to keep her company and hang out, when I noticed this neon coloured thing in the fruit section!

I have seen the dragon fruit before on travel shows and shows like Master chef Australia and always wondered what it must taste like. I immediately turned to my Mother and pleaded with her, "pleeeeeeeeaaaaaase can we buy it! Look at it! It's amazing!"

Doesn't it look like a dragons egg?

Luckily for me, my Mother is wonderful! So she said we could buy it, and I proceeded to search for the brightest coloured one to get the most "Ooooh's" and "Aaaaaah's" when I would take it back with me to my Fiancee's house.

The brightest fruit I could find for the "ooh's" and "aah's"

At my Fiancee's house, the "slaying" began. The dragon fruit has a thick leathery skin, but it peels quite easily. I was really most surprised to see how white the actual fruit inside was compared to it's bright exterior, but I was also rewarded while peeling it to see how the inside of the skin had an even more beautiful fuschia colour to it, which I loved!

It felt like I was in a fantasy land looking at this remarkable fruit.

Look! It's white inside!

And the skin is even brighter inside! Fuschia beautifulness!

Once peeled I cut the white fruit into slices for us all to try. To me I would explain the taste and texture to be a bit of a mix between a prickly pear and a kiwi fruit.

The taste was closer to the prickly pear, very watery, with a bit of sweetness, but also a hint of sour and salt, so a bit like a watered down prickly pear. However the texture was soft and had crunchy tiny black seeds like a kiwi.

If I had to be completely honest with you, after the excitement of the look of they fruit, the taste was a little anticlimactic. A bit of a boring taste on it's own. However I could see it being a lovely addition to a fruit salad.

Perhaps one day I shall try it again in that fruit salad and let you know how that went.

Sincerely

May Marjoram

End of Week Icon: Schalk Burger

Dear Marilyn

So I should warn you, this weeks end of week icon may be a little random, but how could I not mention this man as an icon if I idolize him so much.

We all are fans of certain people, and I think it's important to be fans of local celebs as well, and because of this and also because I MET HIM! This weeks end of week icon is...

Mr. Schalk Burger:

May Marjoram- ecstatic to meet her rugby hero Schalk Burger.

I suppose having an icon mentioned of this nature I should admit it upfront that I am a big fan of my local rugby teams, and its true! I am an out and out Springbok, Stormers, and Western Province supporter.

Most importantly though, what I should admit to you is this... I absolutely LOVE Schalk Burger! Now don't get me wrong, I am an engaged girl, my whole heart does and always will belong to My Fiancee, but does that mean I can't keep a little space on the outskirts of my heart to have some love for fantastic rugby players, comedic karate masters and quirky Australian animal behaviouralists?

I seem to have soft spots for people who seem to get hurt a lot? I cannot explain why this is. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm rather accident prone, but there's something absolutely wonderful about people who get hurt ALL the time, and yet just keep going as if nothing happened. 

Maybe it's got some strange hidden message about perseverance and doing what you believe in and are passionate about no matter what?

There are three men in particular that get hurt A LOT that I love. Sadly the one has already passed, and it was very sad for me. This man was Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter. This man was FANTASTIC! The way he passed was not the way I expected he'd go at all, but at least it was still doing what he loved, be it not with crocodiles or reptiles, at least it was in the wild.

The second man I love who hurts himself constantly is, Mr Jackie Chan! Who couldn't love this awesome man, who insists on doing ALL his stunts, has injured himself countless amounts of times and yet still continues to do his own stunts in movies in his 50's! Not to mention the fact that he sings as well!

Finally, there is a man who comes from my own City, the lovely, the wonderful, Our man of this week, Mr Schalk Burger!! Farah Fennel, who read Jake Whites book, told me this fantastic story that Jake wrote about Schalk Burger.

Apparently, in one game, Schalk Burger got injured and his lip was hurt quite badly and needed stitches (the scar is still visible today), he was sent off for the blood bin, and apparently, while the medic was still stitching him up, he was saying that the medic needs to hurry up, he wants to get back on the field :) It's obvious that Schalk Burger, if it were allowed, would have stayed on the field and waited to get stitches till after the game. 

This man is like a human tank, it's WONDERFUL to watch him play. Once a watched a game where he and another player accidentally head butted each other. The other player stayed down, holding his head, and Schalk Burger sort of shook is head, and then kept playing like nothing happened.

Now... reading the above, you may think, wow, scary, what a MONSTER!,but you would be very very wrong.

Once my Fiancee's Mother was flying and landed up in the seat next to Schalk Burger on the plane. She was seated first, and then suddenly this rather large man came to the seat next to her. He looks at her, holds out his hand and says "Hello tannie, ek's Schalk Burger" (Hello Aunty (a sing of respect from an Afrikaans person) I am Schalk Burger)  Naturally, my Fiancee's Mother (someone who loves rugby as much if not more than me) replied, "I know".

I mean what a nice guy to be as modest as to not assume that everyone knows who he is!

Now recently, Rocking Rosemary came for a visit from the UK and on one of the nights we went out dancing.

I was pretty tired, and it was the end of the night, I was sitting in a corner, hoping and praying everyone else would get tired and leave so I could go, and then to make me feel better, after waiting for sooo long, it happened! There he was! He walked right by me! BUT! I couldn't get to him! Because at that exact same moment to make my sleepy misery worse, Rocking Rosemary and her boyfriend decided to do a pile-on on me!

SO to make up for it, Rocking Rosemary cornered him and asked him if she could take a picture of him with me :) To be more precise, she informed him i was "in love with him" and that he HAD to take a picture with me. I suppose this is why he looks a little afraid, but as you can see in the picture at the top, I was ecstatic (which completely made up for the embarrassing moment caused by Ms Rosemary).

It was a moment I will always remember, and a definite to be ticked off of a bucket list.

I will always be greatful to Rocking Rosemary for making a dream come true, and to SCHALK BURGER for being so sweet and such a sport and a definite icon in my books :)

Sincerely

May Marjoram

Bake more

Dear Julia,

Bake more! Yes, that'll be next year's resolution I think. Basically I've performed pretty badly at last year's resolution of painting 1 painting a month, so hopefully this next one will do better.

Why not? I mean, I was pretty nervous this last weekend past as I was helping a friend (debatable) and simultaneously cashing in my birthday present of a cupcake baking session with her amazing daughter Maddie. It wasn't just the potty training that I was afraid of... I couldn't quite think how I was going to bake cupcakes with a 3 year old when I think the last batch I made was a close catastrophe just on my own!

But I'm mad. Baking isn't hard, and takes no time at ALL! Maddie and I made beautiful caramel cupcakes in under half an hour. Okay I did help a little with the mixing bits when it got a little tough for her, but barely really.
If a 3 year old can pretty much make cupcakes I should be baking up a storm!

Bring on 2013  - the year of the lemon-meringue cupcake, chocolate brownies and tea biscuits!

Now... can I ask you to check up on me? I'd really appreciate some help on this.
In exchange I'm sharing this neat idea for biscuits at your next tea party. Deal?

Source: sandrakavital.blogspot.com via Keyna on Pinterest

Love
Farrah Fennel